Tobin Harshaw, Columnist

No, Trump Didn't Botch the Puerto Rico Crisis

A Q&A with former Navy Captain Jerry Hendrix on smart preparations the White House and Pentagon made for the looming storm.

September 30, 2017 at 11:00 AM UTC

By Tobin Harshaw

Tobin Harshaw is a Bloomberg Opinion senior editor and columnist on national security and military affairs. Previously, he was deputy editor at the op-ed page of the New York Times and the newspaper’s letters editor.

Better late than never?
Photographer: Alex Wong/Getty Images

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"Send in the cavalry."

That was the advice retired Army General Russel Honore gave President Donald Trump this week about responding to the devastation of Puerto Rico by Hurricane Maria. And Honore's opinion was well informed: In 2005, President George W. Bush sent him to bail out New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina's 30-foot storm surge overran its levees. And by Honore's judgment, Trump has fallen short: "This is a hit on White House decision making," he told Bloomberg News.